Banana Pro reads interface settings from a binary file called script.bin or bananapro.bin that is located in the /boot directory. This file defines video output, GPIO selection, and much more. Each value consists of a key = value pair combination under a [sectionheader]. All three entries are case-sensitive. A complete selection of all possible entries can be found at http://linux-sunxi.org/Fex_Guide.

The FEX files can be compiled into a binary file (and recompiled into an ASCII FEX file) using the fex2bin or bin2fex commands. These tools are available on GitHub (sunxi-tools is available at https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-tools). The sunxi-tools require libusb as a prerequisite.

Additionally, git will be installed. Git can be used in order to clone a directory that's available on the Internet on a local SD card or hard disk using this command:

sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev git

Afterwards, clone the sunxi-tools repository and then build and install the tools:

git clone https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-tools
cd sunxi-toolsmake
sudo make install

The syntax of fex2bin and bin2fex is easy. Simply provide two filenames (the original and the converted one, respectively). Take a look at the following example:

sudo fex2bin /boot/script.fex /boot/script.bin

This will generate a new script.bin binary file that's based on the script.fex ASCII file in the /boot directory.

A typical display section in the FEX file looks like this:

[disp_init]
disp_init_enable = 1
disp_mode = 0
screen0_output_type = 3
screen0_output_mode = 4
screen1_output_type = 2
screen1_output_mode = 11
fb0_framebuffer_num = 2
fb0_format = 10
fb0_pixel_sequence = 0
fb0_scaler_mode_enable = 0
fb1_framebuffer_num = 2
fb1_format = 10
fb1_pixel_sequence = 0
fb1_scaler_mode_enable = 0
lcd0_backlight = 197
lcd1_backlight = 197
lcd0_bright = 50
lcd0_contrast = 50
lcd0_saturation = 57
lcd0_hue = 50
lcd1_bright = 50
lcd1_contrast = 50
lcd1_saturation = 57
lcd1_hue = 50

The section header of the FEX file is [disp_init].disp_init_enable, the value of which can be either 1 (enabled display output) or 0 (disabled display output). The display mode is a value between 0 and 4 according to the following table:

The screen0_out_color_range mode defines the output color for HDMI. It applies to both screen0 and screen1. Therefore, there is no screen1_out_color_range. The output color range can be set according to the following table:

The screen0_output_type mode sets the output type for screen0 according to the following table. Therefore, use screen0_output_type accordingly:

The following screen output modes (screen0_output_mode and screen1_output_mode) can be defined for screen0 and screen1:

The fb0_framebuffer_num value is the number of framebuffers to be used for the 0 framebuffer. It can be set to 2 for double buffering. Use fb1_framebuffer_num accordingly. The pixel format for both framebuffers can be defined as fb0_format or fb1_format according to this table:

The framebuffer pixel sequences (fb0_pixel_sequency and fb1_pixel_sequence) must be set to 0 for Linux and 2 for Android operating systems (refer to this table):

The Framebufferscaler mode can be enabled or disabled for both framebuffers (fb0_scaler_mode_enable and fb1_scaler_mode_enable). Use a value of 0 to disable the scaler mode and a value of 1 to enable the scaler mode. The Scaler mode may improve the picture quality of some settings. The lcd0_backlight is a value between 0 and 240 and sets the PWM rate on a selected PWM GPIO. The same is true for lcd1_backlight. All the remaining settings are self-explanatory.

LeMaker provides special configuration files that can be used with LCD screens (refer to The LCD module section).

Banana Pro cannot boot directly from a hard disk. This section will show you how the Linux operating system can be copied from a microSD card to a hard disk and how a system can boot into the OS of the hard disk.

First, boot your Banana Pro with a connected hard disk (SATA and DC). The kernel messages will show the SATA device (usually /dev/sda). In order to get a filesystem overview, the lsblk command can be used. This command will list the complete filesystem including the attached hard disk.

Verify the contents of the hard disk using the following command:

fdisk –l /dev/sda

Principally, the available hard disk space must be equal to or larger than the size of the SD card in order to host the OS. The fdisk command can be used to partition the disk in terms of erasing or adding hard disk partitions. Use this program with care as it can delete everything that exists on your hard disk. The following steps assume an empty hard disk or a hard disk whose content is not needed any more.

The hard disk can be partitioned using the fdisk command:

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

The p (print) command will print partition table:

Command (m for help): p

Existing partitions can be removed using the d (delete) command:

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-6): 1

New partitions can be added using the n (new) command:

Command (m for help): n   
Partition type:
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1

The w (write) command writes all changes to the disk:

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

After this, the fdisk write command will automatically quit. If no other partitions (for example, swap) are required, you can press RETURN when prompted for the first and last sectors. In its simplest sense, a swap partition serves as an overflow to Banana Pro's memory (RAM). It might be useful when compiling huge software packages such as Kodi (formerly known as XBMC). As an alternative, a file on a hard disk or SD card can be used for swapping. A swap partition itself has the 82 partition ID, which can be changed using the t (toggle) command followed by the ID. Swap partitions can be formatted using the following command:

mkswap /dev/sdaX,

X represents the swap partition (for example, 6). Swap partitions will be activated as follows:

swapon /dev/sdaX

New (empty) partitions must be formatted before usage. The following command formats the first partition (sda1) with the .ext4 filesystem and labels it as rootfs. In doing so, all existing data on this partition will be erased. Therefore, use this command with caution and only format empty partitions or partitions whose content is not needed any more:

sudo mke2fs -t ext4 -L rootfs /dev/sda1

In this step, the complete data from the microSD card will be copied to the hard disk. In our example, the first partition of the hard disk will be mounted into the /mnt directory; rsync will be used to transfer all data to the directory:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo rsync -ax / /mnt

The complete copy process will take a while. In the last step, the boot parameters of the uEnv.txt file will be adjusted to use the hard drive. Change root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 in the /boot/uEnv.txt file to this:

root=/dev/sda1

This can be done using the nano editor by typing this:

sudo nano /boot/uEnv.txt

Finally, restart Banana Pro with the following command:

sudo reboot

The system should be redirected from the microSD card to the hard disk right now. A df -h command on my system delivers the following (320 GB of free hard disk space):

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs          289G  157G  118G  57% /
/dev/root       289G  157G  118G  57% /
devtmpfs        380M     0  380M   0% /dev
tmpfs           128M  280K  128M   1% /run
tmpfs           5,0M     0  5,0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs           128M  2,3M  126M   2% /run/shm
tmpfs           1,0G  4,0K  1,0G   1% /tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p1   14G   11G  2,4G  83% /media/lime-next 

sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt
cd /mnt/boot
sudo nano uEnv.txt

Figure 17

In the following section, the installation and operation of a 7 inch LeMaker LCD is described. In the first step, the system will be updated:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Let's look at the software part afterwards. Replace the /boot/bananapro.bin directory with your boot directory and script.bin with your binary startup file:

git clone http://github.com/LeMaker/fex_configuration
cd fex_configuration/
sudo cp bin/banana_pro_7lcd.bin /boot/bananapro/script.bin

Afterwards, edit the /etc/modules file and add the lcd module to it. If the lcd module is already available and commented out using #, simply remove the hash sign as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 18

After this, power off Banana Pro before installing a cable for the 7 inch LCD. The 7 inch display comes together with a 100 mm and 0.5 mm spacing flexible printed circuit (FPC) cable.

Figure 19: The LeMaker 7 inch LCD with the FPC cable and Banana Pro

Turn the LCD around carefully and gently pull out the brown cable clamp from both ends:

Figure 20

Push the flexible cable carefully. Make sure it is straight and the silver conductive end faces downwards toward the blue circuit board, and blue tape faces upwards (Figure 18). After the cable has been inserted completely, push down on both sides of the cable clamp at the same time.

Installing a cable on Banana Pro is pretty much the same as installing the cable on the preceding LCD module. The cable connects to the CON2 connector of Banana Pro board. Do not use the CON1 camera connector. Again, pull out the cable clamps at both sides and push the cable in from the top. The blue protective tape must face the Ethernet jack, while the conductive fingers at the end of the cable face Banana Pro board (Figure 21):

Figure 21: Connecting the LCD to Banana Pro

After the cable is inserted completely, push down on both sides of the clamp and boot your Banana Pro. You should now see this booting screen on the LCD (refer to Figure 22).

Figure 22: Banana Pi using the 7 inch LCD module

The flex cable that's provided is quite short (100 mm only). If you want a larger cable, you may search the Internet for FPC cable 40 0.5 mm. The LCD is capable of showing the X11 desktop (refer to Figure 23) as well as high-resolution videos in full HD.

Figure 23

Banana Pro shows an H264 video on a 7 inch LCD using mplayer. This will look similar to what is shown in the following image:

Figure 24

The installation of a camera module is as easy as the installation of an LCD module. Firstly, required kernel modules will be inserted and are specifically used by this component:

sudo modprobe ov5640
sudo modprobe sun4i_csi0

The preceding commands load the Omnivision camera kernel driver and the CSI driver. In order to load these drivers permanently, add the ov5640 and sun4i_csi0 modules to /etc/modules using this command:

sudo nano /etc/modules

Before installing the hardware to your Banana Pro, make sure it is shut down and disconnected from any power supply. Similar to the LCD module cable, remember to also not touch the silver ends of the camera module flexible cable. The cable, again, is quite short (about 6 cm in length).

The Banana Pro camera module connector is shown in Figure 24. Open the connector and insert the flexible cable carefully (Figure 25).

The connector in Banana Pro is called CON1. Do not use CON2 instead as this is the LCD connector (refer to The LCD module section). Using the wrong connector can cause serious damage to your Banana Pro or the extension board because the pin definitions are completely different.

Open the CON1 connector and put the free end of the camera flexible cable into this connector as shown in Figure 26. Finally, confirm that both ends of the flexible cable are sitting correctly in their sockets. Before using the camera, peel off the plastic foil that covers the lens. The complete arrangement can be seen in the following figure:

Figure 26

The mplayer software can be used in order to test the camera:

sudo apt-get install mplayer
sudo mplayer tv://

On a television, the result would look like what is shown in the following image:

Figure 27